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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Mother says 'Dudus' a hero

THE 63-year-old woman lies in bed inside her Tivoli Gardens home
clutching a radio, listening intently to each news bulletin as though
her life depends on it. Source: Jamaica Observer.

A worried frown creases her forehead. She appears restless. Pauline
‘Patsy’ Halliburton, mother of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, is terrified
that she will never “see” her son alive again.

Coke, who is wanted on gun and drug charges in the United
States, has been on the run since May 17 when a warrant was issued for
his arrest. Less than a week later, security forces traded bullets with
gunmen in his Tivoli Gardens community, and when the smoke cleared 73
civilians and a soldier lay dead. Coke, who was reported to have been in
Tivoli at the start of the May 24 incursion, escaped, the police said.

Now Halliburton, who is diabetic and blind, is hungry for news of her
son. Her frustration is compounded by the fact that she is somewhat
restricted in her movement as a result of an amputated leg caused by the
disease.

“The last few weeks have been the worst in my life,” she told the Sunday
Observer last Wednesday.

“The last time ah see mi son and talk to him was Mother’s Day (May 9).
Him even send mi present come; him never miss a Mother's Day,”
Halliburton said.

Asked if she was in contact with Coke or if she had asked him to turn
himself in, Halliburton answered: “Mi afraid of what the foreign people
them might do.” Her reference was to the US extradition request. She,
however, declined to state whether she was in contact with Coke.

During the interview, a family member, who did not wish to be named,
adjusted Halliburton’s pillow, explaining that she had suffered a
“slight stroke” shortly after the Tivoli incursion.

“Her health is failing,” the family member said.

But Halliburton boldly interjected that despite her condition, her
“strong faith in God” would keep her.

“I’m strong, if not for myself but for my son.”

“Every night ah lay in my bed with me radio just praying and hoping that
my son will be safe,” she continued, adding that it has been a while
since she had a good night’s sleep.

In her heyday, Halliburton worked as a vendor, selling goods in downtown
Kingston and supporting her three children — two boys and one girl. She
also used the opportunity presented by the interview to dismiss rumours
that Coke was the adopted son of former Tivoli Gardens ‘don’, Lester
Lloyd Coke, otherwise called ‘Jim Brown’.

“Him a nuh no adopted son; a just people love to talk,” Halliburton told
the Sunday Observer. In fact, she said one of Dudus’s sons was the
spitting image of his late grandfather.

Tivoli residents have also scoffed at the suggestion that Coke was
adopted, but the police and media reports have said otherwise.

As Halliburton spoke, soldiers moved around outside her house searching
for clues to Coke’s whereabouts.

The lawmen had initially placed a US$20,000 bounty on Coke’s head, but
increased that figure to J$5 million on Friday.

But the Coke the authorities say they are searching for is a far cry
from the one described by his mother last week.

She described Coke as a quiet and caring person.

“Him hardly talk, but him care for people and try to help them. When him
deh here, me nuh wanting a nothing,” said Halliburton, who said her son
also covered the cost of all her medication.

She said not only was her son innocent, but that she felt he was a hero.

She likened Coke’s predicament to that of past who in their lifetime
were regarded as outlaws by authorities, but who were later absolved by
history.

“All a what dem a say is lie dem telling, and that is why I am calling
on the authorities to carry out a deeper investigation in my son’s
case,” Halliburton said.

Asked what her greatest wish was, she said, “Me just wish all of this
problem would go away and that them would just leave him alone”.

“My son is a hero. A pure good things him do for people why them love
him,” continued Halliburton, fighting hard to hold back tears.

She said he was also a disciplinarian.

“One of my clearest memory of this was when there was a strike of
teachers some years ago and some people came out to protest, and him
come around and say I must come off of the road,” she told the Sunday
Observer.

Halliburton said Coke, at the time, also defended teachers, saying they
should get greater recognition for the job they did. She added that she felt that a number of persons were now trying to use
her son by blaming him for problems that were not of his making.

But despite her call for her son to be left alone, the police say they
have stepped up their operations to apprehend him.

In fact, last week they placed several areas across the island under
curfew to restrict the movement of criminals who may be associated with
the reputed community leader.

Since Coke fled Tivoli, police say, several searches in the community
and surrounding areas have resulted in the seizure of more than 70 guns
and thousands of assorted rounds of ammunition.